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Scientific Centres
The Apoptosis Research Centre (ARC) is a Canada
Foundation for Innovation funded $10 million facility
that opened in February of 2004. It is a 20,000 square foot,
state of the art centre dedicated to the investigation of
apoptosis. It forms part of the Children’s Hospital
of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and is located on the
Health Sciences Campus of the University of Ottawa. As such
it is in close proximity to the Children’s Hospital
of Eastern Ontario, the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine,
the Neurosciences Research Institute, the Ottawa Hospital
Research Institute, the University of Ottawa Eye Institute,
the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center and the General Campus of
the Ottawa Hospital.
Apoptosis – cell death
Multicellular organisms are remarkable in their complexity,
comprised of an almost unimaginably diverse array of molecular
mechanisms enabling the propagation, differentiation and maintenance
of their component cells. But just as there exists precisely
programmed mechanisms to generate and maintain the cellular
constituents of metazoans, so too there exists elaborate means
of ending the lives of cells. Homeostasis is achieved at the
cost of a certain intolerance; cells have defined life spans,
limited
ability to deal with physical, chemical, electrical, thermal
or biologic stress and a narrow scope of acceptable behavior,
deviation from which rapidly results in death. Thus cells
which have served their purpose in development, have reached
the end of their natural life span post-development, have
sustained an injury or in some way have become
dysregulated conduct a rapid self disassembly and then die
efficiently, committing suicide. This programmed cell death
or apoptosis is a natural ongoing process, necessary for life.
The research teams of the Apoptosis Research Center are working
towards the understanding of apoptosis and its regulation
at the molecular level and how it impacts diverse disorders
including cancer, spinal muscular atrophy, myotonic dystrophy,
and neurodegenerative disease.
Research Teams
Staff
Material
Transfer Agreement (MTA) form
Contact
Apoptosis Research Center
401 Smyth Road
Room R3103
Ottawa, Ontario
K1H 8L1
Canada
Fax: (613) 738-4833
Tel.: (613) 738-4171
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